Search form

Carolyn Hopper,

The thunder-train raced along on its track of lightning, throwing hail-like bits of white coal from its furnace. Aspen quivered. Chipmunks took cover. The stellar jay chattered and huddled in the branches of the old Doug fir while water washed in beads off its back. All 14 members of our Yellowstone Association class, “Beauty & Science of Autumn,” waited on the bus for the storm to pass. Autumn storms may be short, but they’re also violent—no sense in setting up scopes and cameras to look for mountain goats, just to have our equipment get drenched in this cell of electrified weather.